Tortilla Flat History

"The friendliest little town in Arizona". According to Gross Management Department of the state's main U.S. Post Office in Phoenix, Tortilla Flat is presumed to be Arizona's smallest official "community" having a U.S. Post Office and voter's precinct. The town has a population of 6.

There are probably as many versions of Tortilla Flat's history as there are people to tell the tales. You may have heard a few of them, yourself. In a sincere effort to present a factual history, many previous owners were spoken with, and many stories were verified with historians and other authorities. During research, it often happened that uncovering one tid bit would, simultaneously, uncover another lead to follow, which would in turn uncover others. Undoubtedly, there is still a lot of information out there yet to discover. We don't pretend to have the whole story, but, of what we have, we feel we have a pretty good grasp of the real story.

In the beginning ... Tortilla Flat was a small grassy valley in the Superstition Mountains, with a babbling creek running through. Nature placed the Flat between mountain passes that came to be used by the early Indians on their way to and from the central Arizona mountains and the Salt River valley. The trail their journeys created became known as the Yavapai, or Tonto Trail.

Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer in America in the early 1500s. During an expedition to Florida, he was shipwrecked on a Texas island in 1528. There he was enslaved by the Indians. He escaped and made his way into the Southwest and eventually into Mexico by 1536. His wanderings brought him in contact with the Pueblo Indians, and his later reports in Mexico gave rise to the legends of the Seven Cities of Cibola -- or the Cities of Gold. These legends were the catalyst for bringing Spanish explorers and prospectors into the Arizona territory. As part of the Coronado expedition into Arizona for the Seven Cities of Cibola, Marcos de Niza traveled westward along the Gila River as far as what is now the Phoenix metropolitan area. He may have been the first Spaniard to see the Superstition Mountains.

What has all this to do with Tortilla Flat, you ask? Because of its location, Tortilla Flat, even presently, is affected by the search for gold in the Superstitions. Each Spanish expedition inspired other expeditions looking for vast wealth in gold. In the late 1600s through the mid-1700s, Jesuit priests were located throughout the Southwest. Allegedly, the Jesuits had amassed a fortune in gold and didn't want to share with the King of Spain. The king, convinced of treachery, ordered the deportation of all Jesuits in 1767. However, before their departure, they supposedly hid their treasure in various places throughout the Southwest. According to legend, the Superstition Mountain region was one of these hiding places.

The Peralta legend is the inspiration for quite a few gold expeditions into the Superstitions, even today.

Along with all the prospectors came settlers, which created the need for military outposts for protection against increasing hostilities with the Indians. Military personnel, prospectors, cattle ranchers, and, of course, the Indians, used the Yavapai Trail as a route going into the Tonto basin area. Because of its location, the availability of water, and grass for horses, it's safe to assume Tortilla Flat was a good place to camp along the trail.

Even so, historians say the Yavapai Trail was a difficult trail to traverse. There were other trails easier going. This was largely because of the Herculean task it was to cross Fish Creek Mountain and Fish Creek Canyon.

Legends that there was a small settlement of prospectors and/or Indians located at Tortilla Flat in the 1880s, while colorful and fun to believe, seem to be just that -- legends, Historians agree that if such a settlement existed, it would appear on the old trail maps of the area, which were typically very detailed. The maps show no such indications. Also, legal records, such as those of the U.S. Forest Service, give no mention of a settlement prior to 1904.

Another myth that many believe about Tortilla Flat is that it was a stage stop in the mid-to-Iate 1800s. There was no road to Tortilla Flat prior to 1904, until construction crews built one to Roosevelt Dam. No road -- no stage stop.

Later, 1904 and after, Tortilla Flat was a stop for freight haulers on their way to the construction site at Roosevelt Dam. Shortly following the construction of the road, Roosevelt Dam became a big tourist attraction. At that point Tortilla Flat was a stage stop for tourists and mail carriers through the 1930s.

There is documentation, verified by the owners from 1948-1950, and a cousin to the party, that tells a couple of theories as to how Tortilla Flat got its name.

In the small, but interesting, archives of Tortilla Flat is a letter written in 1939, from Postmaster Russell Perkins to Mr. Ross Santee, state director of the Federal Writers' Project, a government project tracing place names in Arizona, part of the Arizona Works Progress Administration in Phoenix. Mr. Perkins states that Tonto Basin pioneer, Mr. John Cline, in a conversation with Mr. Perkins, said that he [Cline] was with some folks from Tonto Basin who had gone to Phoenix for supplies. On their return they were stranded in the flat for several days by a flash flood. Their food ran out except for some flour, so they made tortillas to eat, and Mr. Cline, in honor of their victuals, christened the flat, Tortilla Flat.

Connie Phelps (co-owner of Tortilla Flat in ' 48-' 50) tells a slightly different version. Mr. Cline came to visit Tortilla Flat when Connie was postmaster and told her a similar story, except that Mr. Cline was on a cattle drive from Punkin Center (which is in Tonto Basin) to Phoenix. Mr. Cline said that Tortilla Flat was the area they used to camp on cattle drives. In Phoenix, Mr. Cline and his fellow cowboys celebrated their sale, and, having a little too much to drink, forgot to get supplies while they were in town. Which is how they ended up with only flour to make tortillas when they camped at the flat and were stranded.

Regardless which version is the most accurate, Mr. Cline seems to be the one to have bestowed the name that is now known the world over.

According to Connie Phelps, Mr. Cline was 95 years old when he told her his story. Exactly which year that was is not known, but since Connie lived in Tortilla Flat between 1948 and 1950, his visit, of course, had to be during that time. A quick mathematical computation suggests Mr. Cline was born between 1853 and 1855. Mr. Perkins' letter in 1939 says that Mr. Cline had been living in the Tonto Basin for 72 years, which could mean Mr. Cline moved to Tonto Basin in 1867 at the age of 10 or 12. That was not too early an age to be part of a cattle drive. Though no one seems to know exactly what year Mr. Cline named Tortilla Flat, the figures indicate the flat could have been named as early as 1867. Whether it was or not, (and, it seems unlikely because of Mr. Cline's young age at the time) someone else doing the same computations would have also realized the possibility, which may have led to legends that Tortilla Flat, as a permanent settlement, was established in 1867. Another legend says 1886. Both dates probably fall within the time period Mr. Cline drove cattle.

Going by available records Tortilla Flat got its start because of the road construction to Roosevelt Dam (1904). Once established as a freight camp, there seems to have been some number of people living there from then on.

Forest Service records show Tonto National Forest being established in 1905 as kind of a "package deal" with the Salt River Reclamation Project. The Forest Service was needed to manage the land and protect watershed for the dams because cattle grazing had denuded the land, and for additional reasons. The freight camp at Tortilla Flat, as well as the other camps along the road to the dam, were, therefore, on U.S. Forest Service land. Those folks who decided to make Tortilla Flat their permanent residence kept up the lease on the land in later years whenever it came due.

L. L. Lombardi & Lois M. Potter-Sanders ©2004

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ARIZONA REPUBLIC

November 27, 1906

Tortilla Flat - Field Engineer, W. A. Farish has a gang of men putting up a windmill in Tortilla Creek where the government road crosses it. The mill will force water into a cement tank which will be built on an elevation above the road. Water pipes five hundred feet in length will be run from this tank to Ator's place ­Tortilla Flat. A dam built of rock and cement, four feet high has been built across the creek at this point so that sufficient amount of water may be had at all times. The idea of this is is to furnish water for the dry camps which may be located along the road during the summer season. Tanks placed on wagons will drive under the cement tank supplied by the wind mill and there be filled and hauled to the camps on the desert away from the stream.